Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Who Are Those Guys? ~ Tom Clegg




Not to be confused with British director Tom Clegg [1934-2016]. As a young man our Tom Clegg started out in life as a member of the Household Cavalry, before becoming a professional middleweight boxer from 1938-1939 appearing in 8 bouts, winning four and losing four.  You can see why Peter Rogers cast him in that role in two of the “Carry On” films! Tom apparently first broke into the world of film when he got some work as a stuntman in the 1952 film, “Ivanhoe”, starring Robert Taylor. By the mid-1950s Tom was starting to appear in small acting roles. Some of the films he appeared in during those early days include “Moby Dick” and “The Hideout” (both 1956); “Saint Joan” (1957); “This Sporting Life” (1963) and the James Bond epic “Thunderball” in 1965.

Branching out in the blossoming world of television in the late 1950s and 1960s, Tom played a range of tough guys and menacing baddies in a wide range of well-known Drama series. He popped up in the likes of ‘Quatermass II’, ‘The Saint’, ‘Sword of Freedom’, ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ and ‘The Sweeney’. He also found a niche in comedy roles on the small screen, appearing in four separate episodes of the classic comedy series ‘Hancock's Half Hour’. He went on to appear in ‘The Benny Hill Show’ and ‘Till Death Us Do Part’.


CLEGG, Tom (aka Tommy Clegg) [1915, Hackney, East London, England, U.K. – 1996, U.K.] – boxer, stuntman, film, TV actor.
Carry on Cowboy – 1965 (blacksmith)

3 comments:

  1. The actor shown in the photo used in your piece Who Are Those Guys? - Tom Clegg on Wednesday November 20th 2019, is not Tom Clegg but Brian Rawlinson Born in Stockport 1931: Died in Lyme Regis ,Dorset in 2000.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The original photo has been replaced by another which states it is Tom Clegg. Thanks Jim for spotting the initial error.

    ReplyDelete